Billie Holiday - The Complete Billie Holiday On Verve, 1945-1959

Facts

The Complete Billie Holiday On Verve, 1945-1959 Music Price: $169.98 As of Jan 4 17:57 EST (details)

Artist(s)	Billie Holiday
Studio	Polygram Records
Release Date	March 9, 1993
UPC Code	731451765827
Buy this item	$169.98 at Amazon.com As of Jan 4 17:57 EST (details) 10 Audio CD, Usually ships in 24 hours, Box set

About Billie Holiday - The Complete Billie Holiday On Verve, 1945-1959

Tracks

1. Body and Soul - Billie Holiday, Eyton, Frank
2. Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday, Allan, Lewis
3. I Cried for You - Billie Holiday, Arnheim, Gus
4. Fine and Mellow - Billie Holiday, Holiday, Billie
5. He's Funny That Way - Billie Holiday, Moret, Neil
6. The Man I Love - Billie Holiday, Gershwin, George
7. Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You - Billie Holiday, Razaf, Andy
8. All of Me - Billie Holiday, Marks, Gerald
9. Billie's Blues - Billie Holiday, Holiday, Billie
10. Trav'lin' Light - Billie Holiday, Mercer, Johnny
11. He's Funny That Way - Billie Holiday, Moret, Neil
12. You Better Go Now - Billie Holiday, Graham, Robert
13. You're Driving Me Crazy - Billie Holiday, Donaldson, Walter
14. There Is No Greater Love - Billie Holiday, Jones, Isham
15. I Cover the Waterfront - Billie Holiday, Green, Johnny
16. East of the Sun (And West of the Moon) - Billie Holiday, Bowman, Brooks
17. Blue Moon - Billie Holiday, Hart, Lorenz
18. You Go to My Head - Billie Holiday, Coots, J. Fred
19. You Turned the Tables on Me - Billie Holiday, Alter, Louis
20. Easy to Love - Billie Holiday, Porter, Cole
21. These Foolish Things - Billie Holiday, Link, Harry
22. I Only Have Eyes for You - Billie Holiday, Dubin, Al
23. Solitude - Billie Holiday, DeLange, Eddie

1. Everything I Have Is Yours - Billie Holiday, Adamson, Harold
2. Love for Sale - Billie Holiday, Porter, Cole
3. Moonglow - Billie Holiday, DeLange, Eddie
4. Tenderly - Billie Holiday, Gross, Walter
5. If the Moon Turns Green - Billie Holiday, Coates, Paul
6. Remember - Billie Holiday, Berlin, Irving
7. Autumn in New York - Billie Holiday, Duke, Vernon
8. Autumn in New York - Billie Holiday, Duke, Vernon
9. My Man - Billie Holiday, Charles, Jacques
10. Lover, Come Back to Me - Billie Holiday, Hammerstein, Oscar
11. Stormy Weather - Billie Holiday, Arlen, Harold
12. Yesterdays - Billie Holiday, Harbach, Otto
13. He's Funny That Way - Billie Holiday, Moret, Neil
14. I Can't Face the Music - Billie Holiday, Bloom, Rube
15. MC and Leonard Feather Announcements - Billie Holiday,
16. Blue Moon - Billie Holiday, Hart, Lorenz
17. All of Me - Billie Holiday, Marks, Gerald
18. My Man - Billie Holiday, Charles, Jacques
19. Them There Eyes - Billie Holiday, Tauber, Doris
20. I Cried for You - Billie Holiday, Arnheim, Gus
21. What a Little Moonlight Can Do - Billie Holiday, Woods, Harry
22. I Cover the Waterfront - Billie Holiday, Green, Johnny
23. Billie's Blues - Billie Holiday, Holiday, Billie

1. Lover, Come Back to Me - Billie Holiday, Hammerstein, Oscar
2. How Deep Is the Ocean? - Billie Holiday, Berlin, Irving
3. What a Little Moonlight Can Do - Billie Holiday, Woods, Harry
4. I Cried for You - Billie Holiday, Arnheim, Gus
5. Love Me or Leave Me - Billie Holiday, Donaldson, Walter
6. P.S. I Love You - Billie Holiday, Jenkins, Gordon
7. Too Marvelous for Words - Billie Holiday, Mercer, Johnny
8. Softly - Billie Holiday, Beal, Eddie
9. I Thought About You - Billie Holiday, Mercer, Johnny
10. Willow Weep for Me - Billie Holiday, Ronell, Ann
11. Stormy Blues - Billie Holiday, Holiday, Billie
12. Say It Isn't So - Billie Holiday, Berlin, Irving
13. I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - Billie Holiday, Berlin, Irving
14. I Wished on the Moon - Billie Holiday, Parker, Dorothy
15. Always - Billie Holiday, Berlin, Irving
16. Everything Happens to Me - Billie Holiday, Adair, Tom
17. Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me - Billie Holiday, Ellington, Duke
18. Ain't Misbehavin' - Billie Holiday, Brooks, Harry

1. Nice Work If You Can Get It - Billie Holiday, Gershwin, George
2. Discussion: Nice Work If You Can Get It - Billie Holiday,
3. Mandy Is Two - Billie Holiday, McGrath, Fulton
4. Prelude to a Kiss - Billie Holiday, Ellington, Duke
5. I Must Have That Man! - Billie Holiday, Fields, Dorothy
6. Jeepers Creepers - Billie Holiday, Mercer, Johnny
7. Jeepers Creepers - Billie Holiday, Mercer, Johnny
8. Discussion: Jeepers Creepers - Billie Holiday,
9. Discussion: Jeepers Creepers - Billie Holiday,
10. Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone - Billie Holiday, Clare, Sidney
11. Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone - Billie Holiday, Clare, Sidney
12. Discussion: Moonlight in Vermont - Billie Holiday, Blackburn, John
13. Misery - Billie Holiday, Scott, Tony
14. Restless - Billie Holiday, Coslow, Sam
15. Moonlight in Vermont - Billie Holiday, Blackburn, John
16. Everything Happens to Me - Billie Holiday, Adair, Tom
17. Discussion - Billie Holiday,
18. I Don't Want to Cry Anymore - Billie Holiday, Schertzinger, Victo
19. I Don't Want to Cry Anymore - Billie Holiday, Schertzinger, Victo
20. Discussion: I Don't Want to Cry Any More - Billie Holiday,
21. Everything Happens to Me - Billie Holiday, Adair, Tom
22. Discussion - Billie Holiday,
23. When You Are Away, Dear - Billie Holiday, Blossom, Henry
24. Discussion - Billie Holiday,
25. It Had to Be You - Billie Holiday, Jones, Isham
26. The Mood That I'm In - Billie Holiday, Sherman, Al
27. Gone With the Wind - Billie Holiday, Magidson, Herbert
28. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) - Billie Holiday, Ellington, Duke
29. Discussion - Billie Holiday,
30. I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You - Billie Holiday, Crosby, Bing
31. Discussion - Billie Holiday,
32. I'm Walkin' Through Heaven With You - Billie Holiday, Gordon, Rozz
33. Discussion - Billie Holiday,
34. Just Friends - Billie Holiday, Klenner, John
35. The Nearness of You - Billie Holiday, Carmichael, Hoagy
36. They Say - Billie Holiday, Heyman, Edward

1. I Don't Want to Cry Anymore - Billie Holiday, Schertzinger, Victo
2. I Don't Want to Cry Anymore - Billie Holiday, Schertzinger, Victo
3. Studio Talk; Prelude to a Kiss - Billie Holiday, Ellington, Duke
4. Prelude to a Kiss - Billie Holiday, Ellington, Duke
5. I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You - Billie Holiday, Crosby, Bing
6. When Your Lover Has Gone - Billie Holiday, Swan, Einar A.
7. Studio Talk; When Your Lover Has Gone - Billie Holiday, Swan, Einar A.
8. When Your Lover Has Gone - Billie Holiday, Swan, Einar A.
9. Gone With the Wind - Billie Holiday, Magidson, Herbert
10. Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone - Billie Holiday, Clare, Sidney
11. It Had to Be You - Billie Holiday, Jones, Isham
12. Nice Work If You Can Get It - Billie Holiday, Gershwin, George
13. Come Rain or Come Shine - Billie Holiday, Arlen, Harold
14. I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues - Billie Holiday, Arlen, Harold
15. What's New? - Billie Holiday, Burke, Johnny
16. A Fine Romance - Billie Holiday, Fields, Dorothy
17. A Fine Romance - Billie Holiday, Fields, Dorothy
18. A Fine Romance - Billie Holiday, Fields, Dorothy
19. A Fine Romance - Billie Holiday, Fields, Dorothy
20. A Fine Romance - Billie Holiday, Fields, Dorothy
21. A Fine Romance - Billie Holiday, Fields, Dorothy
22. I Hadn't Anyone Till You - Billie Holiday, Noble, Ray

Similar CDs

Billie Holiday: The Complete Decca Recordings	The Complete Commodore Recordings	Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia	Lady Day: The Master Takes and Singles	Lady in Satin

User Reviews

so so

A caixa me decepcionou um pouco, a parte gráfica e a embalagem estão aquem do que eu esperava e a parte musical propriamente dita tem coisas sublimes mas também tem material de qualidade duvidosa. April 26, 2008

Great Music, Bad Layout

My Five Star rating is for the music.

I am a long time Billie Holiday fan and love all of her music; it's taken many years, but I am confident that I have acquired virtually everything she ever recorded. Although I enjoy every period of her musical development, I am particularly fond of the tracks she recorded for Norman Granz on the Verve label in the 1950's. Naturally, I was thrilled when this box set was announced.

While I am grateful to have so complete a box set as Verve has issued here, I have severe problems with the way the material is presented. It's nice that they have released virtually everything in the Verve vaults, but in so doing they have included live performances, alternate takes, false starts, and even some rehearsals. That would have been fine with me, if they hadn't decided to place everything in strictly chronological order. We therefore get Lady Day's great studio sessions interspaced with live concert performances, chatter, rehearsals and incomplete takes, and the total effect makes for very poor continuity. It also makes the boxed set, on the whole, very difficult to enjoy.

A few of the live concert performances have never been released before, and I was thrilled to hear some "new" Billie Holiday. But the audio quality and Billie's performance varies greatly on the live material, and the result is very uneven. And the inclusion of the rehearsal material is questionable, even if you're a die-hard fan like me.

The 1955 rehearsal with Jimmie Rowles is particularly problematic. This session was released on an LP called Songs and Conversations shortly after Billie's death, and I was frankly surprised to find it included here. It consists of mostly drunken rambling conversation while Billie rehearses with her favorite and most sympathetic pianist. Some of the language is quite raunchy, although most of the discussion is hard to follow anyway, as the audio quality is particularly poor. The alternate studio takes are frequently annoying, especially when they include two or three false starts in a row, and the spoken intros by Norman Granz often included in the master takes are completely unnecessary. It would have worked so much better if they had simply separated the live concert material from the studio sessions and then saved the alternate takes, false starts and rehearsal material for the last couple of discs. It's a pity - I would love to be able to listen to all of Billie's wonderful 1950's studio sessions all the way through, without the distractions of the extra material. Happily, I see that Verve will release a new boxed set of just the studio masters in December 2005. Hopefully they will skip all the chatter (I don't need to hear Mr. Granz announce "All Or Nothing At All, take 5"). A great deal of expense and angst could have been avoided if the track layout for this set had simply been better thought out.

As for Billie's performances, there is not a bad moment in any of the studio recordings presented here, including the notorious three April 54 tracks that she later dismissed, complaining that the band was drunk. The musicians are all first rate throughout these sessions, and present her with the sympathetic backing she deserved and worked best with.
November 24, 2005

The package

In reference to the Dec 7th/2001 review by Michael Mccarthy:

I to bought this when it was originally released and aside from the collected songs and book - which cannot be faulted - the package was as Michael points out beautifully done - it did in fact win a Grammy (for the packaging and the way it was put together - all hardbound etc)- I had intended to buy this box set for my Daughter - however after having read Michael's review I chose not to pay the high cost given the packaging has been downgraded..Like Michael I cannot understand why they would have done this given the cost remains basically the same. If your looking at purchasing I would read Michael's review and then look for the original...
February 10, 2005

Avoid at all costs

This is one of the worst box sets ever released.

There is talking between virtually every track (on 7 or 8 of the 10 cds)(scores and scores of title and take numbers spoken, and respoken. The producer introducing tracks by title and making endlessly pointless studio remarks. (Of course the same uninteresting remark
each and every time you play the cd..)
Sometimes songs even stop after a single line is sung (or before). Then reslate, retitle and restart for
another 20 seconds.

Of course the (properly recorded) music itself is wonderful but it's impossible to fall into any kind of musical reverie
with the incessant interruptions (absolutely none of it worth hearing).
So if you like Billie Holiday for her *music* this isn't for you

In fact the box set is so utterly unplayable I rebought the music on individual cds so that I can actually listen to it.
I'm a big Billie fan, I already had all the music on vinyl before I bought the box set.
(Yes, even the very poor bootleg stuff that Verve bought to pad out the box set.)

Finally it's wildly overpriced, around 5/6 of the cd's are only for listening to once (and you might not even manage
that. Billie Holiday as a slurring rambling drunk is a big downer and
the record company might have shown her a little respect and kept the tapes in the vault.
Haven't they made enough off her yet? In the first place they only paid her a fee of $30-$100 per track for a buyout with
with no royalties ever.

In reality at least half the box set is actually unreleasable outtakes/rehearsal tapes - boxed up as full price cds.
The whole thing smacks of record company greed.

So there are only around 4 cds of real, properly recorded releasable master take music.
And these can be bought on 2 double cd sets (unfortunately only from Verve) without the talking between tracks.
Do yourself a favor and get these instead.

Oh yeah, and as if all this isn't enough bad news, they've jammed different sessions on to the same cd - so you get a handful of
prime Billie tracks followed by 40 minutes of amateur home recorded rehearsal talking on the same cd.
So what emerges is that there is only (I think) one single cd which is prime quality all the way through.
(Except for the stopping, retakes and talking between the takes which it also has..)

So get any other Billie Holiday box set than this - but get one!

Verve should be ashamed of themselves for ruining an incredible archive like this.
And making me feel so ripped off that I had to go to the trouble of writing this.
Thanks Amazon for the cheap therapy. January 29, 2004

a lot of stuff, but indispensable

There are many rehearsal cuts in this box set, which may not be of interest to all listeners. Plus, there are many live performances recorded with less than ideal equipment.
That said, this is THE collection for those of us who love Billie's 1950s work. It's all here, and it's all wonderful - those who agree with Miles Davis that Lady Day's chief attribute during this decade was her rhythmic flexibility will be more than satisfied, and those who love her expressiveness will be more than amply rewarded.
The accompaniments are exemplary, featuring many of the greatest players of that Golden Era.
Plus, of course, she's singing some of the greatest songs ever written, and her attention to lyrics is beyond comparison.

She never had Ella's vocal range and flexibility and virtuosity (or her sweetness of sound); she never came close to Sarah's level of musicianship (or her richness of sound). But this set will convince you that Billie was the greatest of the great: to borrow from Virginia Woolf, among major jazz singers, Billie is the hardest to catch at the act of being great.

This is an important release. Miss it at your soul's peril. August 30, 2003

More reviews at Amazon.com ...